


A Plastic City

by Scorpio_in_luv



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Environmentalism, Fluff, Other, literally just made to raise awareness about pollution tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:01:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29108244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scorpio_in_luv/pseuds/Scorpio_in_luv
Summary: Rescuing a kitten from being trapped in some trash with your boyfriend, and deciding that something should be done about it.
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	A Plastic City

…In a city as vast as Tokyo, it’s easy to miss quite a few things when so much is going on. You lose yourself into a blur of your mainstreamed life. Some of what goes on around you is blocked out, at a point, so that you don’t have to deal with it all. 

To some extent, this is useful. But as the saying goes, too much of anything is bad. 

Being absorbed in your own life is like being trapped in a dream, where so many harsh and sad realities are filed away in a cabinet somewhere. It’s a rare occasion for them to be dug up. For you to flee your slumber. 

On this day, you and your boyfriend woke up. 

It was like any other day. School hours had just ended. Your hand was all wrapped up in his, swinging back and forth. 

The shadows were growing longer and the sunlight tainted yellow, the first hints of the day approaching its end. Everything was going about, so you both did, too. 

Tonight you had no other plans, so you wanted to do something with Kuroo. Why not? All you’ve been doing the past week or so was studying and sorts. You figured tonight would be a good break. 

“Say, Tetsu.” 

“Hm?” 

“A movie? Tonight?” 

You could feel his hold tighten in the slightest. “Why not? I’ll bring snacks.” 

“A movie, snacks, _and_ a pillow fort.” you added with a grin. 

“Now you’re talking- did you hear that?” 

For a moment, you weren’t able to realize what he asked. Thus your reply was a bit late, with you saying, “No, what do you mean?” 

“In that alley.” he nodded his head towards ahead of you. “Listen.” 

You did, standing in silence once you approached that area. Through the din of passing vehicles, as you strained your ears, you could make out… 

Meows. 

Small, weak, kitten meows. 

He and you madly dashed into the alley. 

“Sounds like it’s in trouble.” 

“Where is it?” 

“Looking.” he crouched down and moved some boxes. When you noticed him do so, you started to do the same. 

“Why’s there so much junk here?” you whispered. The sheer amount of trash you were pushing around was unbelievable. How did it even end up in this alley in the first place? 

It took a moment for you to get closer and closer to the meows. Which, probably now that you two were around, began to grow louder. You desperately wanted to find the source of it. 

And at last, you did. 

Your hands uncovered a small creature, black fur riddled with debris. 

“Tetsu- I found it!” 

He scrambled to your side to see the poor thing with its head stuck in a plastic six-pack ring, struggling to get out. In that second, your hearts nearly dropped to your stomachs. 

“It’s- it’s almost choking.” his voice muttered, and you sharply drew in a breath. 

Kuroo looked to you. The nonchalant expression he had on before was clearly long gone. Now, it was filled with worry and urgency, brows creased and lips pressed. 

With no further words, you both agreed,

“Let’s take it in.” 

You brought the kitten into your hands. As you did so, he carefully but surely lifted the ring off, and it was free. When it realized nothing was on its neck, it settled, and fell asleep in your arms. 

“It’s so friendly…” you trailed off, “how did it even get like this?” 

“Just look around you.” Kuroo gestured to your surroundings. “There’s junk and shit all around, everywhere you look. 

He was right. Bottles scattered about the ground, along with some soda cans and chips bags. Some cardboard boxes were moist and rotting away. You craned your neck behind you. On the streets, a gum wrapper lay pressed to the walkway. And a lonely plastic bag drifted by. 

Were all of these… always there?

Or rather, were you only seeing it now? 

* * *

Once the kitten was taken to Kuroo’s place, you both worked together to wash it and feed it properly. You determined it to be around 5 months old after conducting some research online. Kuroo even ended up making some scrambled eggs to feed it, which was sweet. 

In fact, now that the furry friend was in your custody, Kuroo was being especially soft for it. The way he looked at it when it slept and stroked its head, the most. You couldn’t help but feel a sort of warmth grow in your chest seeing that. 

“You’re really good at taking care of it, you know that?” you spoke up.

He glanced from the purring lump in his lap to you. “Hm? Really?” 

“Well, yeah,” you settled your elbows on your knees, leaning forward, “whenever you handled it, the way you carried and washed it- even now- you’re so gentle. I didn’t know you had a thing for animals, Tetsu… I like it. It’s cute!” 

His head nodded to what you said, until towards the end- then, his ears burned red, you could see, and his eyes flew to the ground. The hand he had on the kitten halted at its head. Gentle? This was probably the first time he was told that. And the best part was, it was from you.

“Glad you see me that way. Wouldn’t want to be the opposite of gentle, haha. Also,” he lifted its tail to give it’s behind a glance, then gave a snarky grin. “It’s a she.” 

“I- TETSU!”

“What? How else was I supposed to tell?” he said between laughs.

With that you could only giggle along with him, because, well, he was right about that. 

But then your expression went from joyful to solemn, and he could see it. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” 

“Nothing, just.. all that trash before…” 

“Ah.” he bit his lip. “Hm. We should do something about it? Right?” 

“Yeah, but what?” you stood up and began to pace around. “Tokyo is giant. We can’t really get rid of ALL of it, can we?” 

“That’s true, but, we can do the most we can.”

You looked to him. You could’ve sworn there was a gleam in his pupils. 

“You’re right. We can.” 

* * *

The crack of dawn. 

this was the very first time you felt good picking up trash, most likely. 

Kuroo had called over pretty much the entire Nekoma team to help out, as reluctant as they were at first. Until the afternoon, all of you worked together to clean up the alley that you found the cat in- Kira, meaning ‘sparkle’, as you named it- until it looked good as new. 

Lev had even commented, “There’s, like, twice as much space here now!” 

Once it was all completed, the place was left to its own. Except now, there was a small sign hung within that read: 

> _We worked hard to have this place clean, so please keep it that way. We hope it inspires you to keep the rest of Tokyo like this, too._

Yesterday, you and your boyfriend woke up. 

Now what you wanted to do was wake others. 

**Author's Note:**

> I’m an environmentalist and have recently seen a documentary on Netflix called “A Plastic Ocean.” It explains how the immense amount of plastic not only damages wildlife, but ourselves as well. That made me really want to write this fic, so I hope it raises awareness that littering is not right and the use of disposable items should be kept to a minimum. Thank you for reading to this point!


End file.
